Councillors asked for further £600,000 towards fire station at Saughall Massie

Councillors asked for further £600,000 towards fire station at Saughall Massie

Planning Committee site visit to land off Saughall Massie Road 13th December 2016 Left Cllr Steve Foulkes Right Cllr Anita Leech Chair-min

Councillors asked for further £600,000 towards fire station at Saughall Massie

                                    

Planning Committee site visit to land off Saughall Massie Road 13th December 2016 Left Cllr Steve Foulkes Right Cllr Anita Leech Chair
Planning Committee site visit to land off Saughall Massie Road 13th December 2016 Left Cllr Steve Foulkes (Vice-Chair) Right Cllr Anita Leech (Chair)

Councillors on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority will be asked next week to agree to a further £600,000 for a new fire station at Saughall Massie. The government’s contribution to the project has been increased from £1.5 million to £2.086 million.

The recent decision of Wirral Council to award a 150 year lease of the land will be effective from next Tuesday if not called in by opposition councillors.

Due to increased costs plans for a new fire station in Liverpool have been dropped.

The reports for Saughall Massie as well as an agenda item explaining the changes to how Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority will spend the government grant will both be considered in public.

The meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday 14th December 2017 starting at 1.00 pm in the Liverpool Suite at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Headquarters, Bridle Road, Bootle, L30 4YD.

If approval is given by councillors to the increased costs, building the new fire station is expected to take twelve months and be operational in mid-2019.

The plans for a new fire station in this greenbelt location are opposed by local residents and the three local councillors.

The original site in Greasby was withdrawn by Wirral Council after public opposition.

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Author: John Brace

New media journalist from Birkenhead, England who writes about Wirral Council. Published and promoted by John Brace, 134 Boundary Road, Bidston, CH43 7PH. Printed by UK Webhosting Ltd t/a Tsohost, 113-114 Buckingham Avenue, Slough, Berkshire, England, SL1 4PF.

5 thoughts on “Councillors asked for further £600,000 towards fire station at Saughall Massie”

  1. So let me get this straight, they are closing two stations to save money because of cut backs! the Government who is cuting Councls budgets then gives the fire service £1.5 million so they can build a new station.
    Wirral Council then give the land to the fire service so they can build an new station and allow then to have it for a 150 years, rate free i would have thought also.
    Now they want another £600.000 so they can begin work and its going to take a year to build? looking at the plans it shouldn’t take any longer than around three to four months to put up a single storey, make a car park for half a dozen cars, unless they are employing one bloke and a spade, as for the extra money i take it this is what the fire service paid out for legal fees fighting the planing permission refusal etc over the last year.
    What’s that smell, is it fish? well it smells fishy
    And what about the hundreds of thousands the fire service gets when the two old stations are knocked down and the land sold, has the fire service thought about going to a bank for a bridging loan?

    1. Thanks for your comment.

      Well by cancelling the new fire station in Liverpool, they’re using part of that the money the government gave them for the fire station they’re not building to up the government’s contribution to just over £2 million rather than the original £1.5 million.

      Wirral Council agreed to £42,000 for a lease for the land as opposed to the I think £300,000 originally budgeted for the sale of the land.

      But despite this, councillors on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority are being asked to contribute a further £600,000 as the costs have gone up.

      I think at the highest point (although this figure is from memory) it’s around 14 metres high. Although the training tower is higher than that.

      However, had they had listened during the consultation and used feedback to modify their first planning application they would probably be building it by now rather than having to increase the cost of it by a further million pounds.

      Councillors will however I’m sure approve increased costs as they say it will save money (which as the alternative keeping Upton open costs around £5 million less is something the public don’t understand).

    2. Just to be clear Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority is a different public body to the councils.

      MFRA can decide the element of council tax in the Merseyside area they want, which is increasing. In fact this year I think it went up by about two percent.

      So local people are paying more for a service that will be reduced.

  2. keef666 says it all, and as for you john you have managed to send my blood pressure off the scale yet again with this latest Wirral council fiasco. Not only did they give away a £300k asset but have gifted the MFRA a 150 year lease without any lease charges. It beggars belief that this inept council give away a possible £200
    million pound asset over the 150 year life of the site, and guess what the poor bleeding ratepayers lose out so whats new. Who will get the Upton site MFRA or Wirral council. They “the council” could not organise a P**S up in a brewery I despair.

    1. The Upton site is owned by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority who plan to sell it (for money of course) when Saughall Massie is up and running.

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